DUSHANBE, January 28, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- Tajikistan ought to settle the issue of social insurance of labor migrants with countries, which are primary destinations for labor migrants from Tajikistan, Muhammad Egamzod, the head of Moscow-based Tajik media-holding, Tajinfo, said.

According to him, the issue of social protection of our labor migrants is becoming more and more topical.  “There is no social package for labor migrants and they will not receive pensions in Tajikistan, until these issues are settled legally within the framework of agreements with countries that are destinations for Tajik labor migrants,” said Egamzod, “They do not have time records in Tajikistan, while abroad, they work illegally.”

Many countries, including Russia, do not have mechanism of social protection even for legal labor migrants, he noted.

Egamzod considers that it is necessary to work out law that would provide for mechanism of voluntary remittance of funds for social insurance, registration and opening of personal accounts at the Agency for Social Insurance and Pensions.

We will recall that Tajikistan worked out the law on insurance and state pensions. The law consists of 62 articles and under this law, rate of pension will depend not only on the record of service and the salary rate for the last five years, it will also depend on rate of premiums that will be paid by citizens themselves or by their employers.  The law also gives labor migrants an opportunity to join the pension insurance system.

The law on insurance and state pensions was expected to take effect on January, 2011, but the lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) of parliament on January 12 endorsed postponement of implementation of the RT Law “On Insurance and State Pensions” until 2013, following application by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.  The ministry asked to postpone the implementation of the law because the budget had not projected funds for its financing.  Moreover, not all normative acts have been prepared by relevant ministries and agencies for implementation of the law, Minister of Labor and Social Protection Mahmadamin Mahmadaminov noted.